1 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
Vol. XV, CHICAGO, JUNE, 1905. No. 4 
The Restoring of Forest Rark, St. Louis. 
A very serious question is now before the city offi- 
cials of St. L.ouis in connection with the re-estab- 
lishment of the once beautiful Forest Park, which was 
in certain senses dismantled to provide a site for the 
Louisiana Purchase International Exposition. By the 
terms of the contract the Exposition directors were to 
• put the park in a condition equal to what it was at the 
time of its being taken over, and bonds for $ioo,ooo 
were passed to insure the carrying out of the work. 
The task is already appreciated to be of too complex 
proportions for the exposition officials, and it is also 
recognized that to reproduce the park it should be 
placed in the hands of expert landscape designers and 
officials, such as, for instance, are included on the staff 
of the park department. The first requisite is a gen- 
eral plan of development, with details to be taken care 
of later, because with the probability of some of the 
Exposition buildings being retained, new conditions 
arise, and it will take time to do full justice to the pos- 
sibilities now promised. It is deemed best that the 
control of the redevelopment be left to the St. Louis 
park department, and in order to bring this about an 
ordinance providing that the bond be forfeited to the 
city has been introduced into the municipal assembly. 
St. Louis now has an opportunity of doing some park 
work on a large scale, and with all modern innova- 
tions. and considering the remarkable success of the 
late Exposition, there can be no doubt of her ability 
to create a worthy beauty spot. 
^ ^ ^ 
Wanted — Good Men for a Park ^oard. 
All interested in civic embellishment must he grati- 
fied at the wave of reform which seems to have set in, 
in good earnest, over our country. The administration 
of park affairs under political control has almost in- 
variably been marked by jobbery and incompetency. 
Large appropriations of money have been expended for, 
the development and care, of public parks, but the 
parks under such control have too often failed to show 
any adequate returns for such expenditures. The ex- 
perience of Chicago is only similar to that of other 
political-machine run cities, and its citizens may well 
congratulate themselves upon what has already come to 
pass, in connection with its well-known Lincoln Park, 
and which it is promised shall come to pass in connec- 
tion with its West Side system, a series of parks which 
have very nearly been brought to ruin by political 
methods. Governor Deneen, recently elected, is striv- 
ing to induce well-known West Side business men to 
accept appointments on the park board, and a technical 
and practical superintendent is also to be appointed. In 
view of the fact that $2,000,000 is to be used on Chi- 
cago’s West Side parks, it is very satisfactory to note 
the Governor’s wise interest in this important matter. 
Work of the Home Gardening Association of Ck'veland. 
The Home Gardening Association of Cleveland, O., 
has adopted another feature in its very successful work 
of promoting a love of flowers and plants, and their use 
in beautifying a neighborhood. This is “The Plant 
Exchange,” which has been in operation tbe past few 
weeks, and for which plants will be received until 
June 25. The use of a lot on Euclid Avenue was 
given to the Association, and it has been converted into 
a garden in which to store plants and from which to 
deliver them in the course of the exchange work. The 
need of such an exchange was keenly felt last vear, 
and it provides an opportunity to all having plants in 
excess of their requirements to help the cause of floral 
embellishment of The city. It will be especially bene- 
ficial for the school yards where flowering plants can 
be used. The success of the Association is again illus- 
trated by the comparison between its bulb and seed 
supply of last year and this: In 1904 there were dis- 
tributed in the city 179,536 packages of seeds and 
bulbs, and this year 235,349. Outside the city, where 
the influence of the Association has been exercised, 
57,000 packages were sent out in 1904, while this year 
the number reaches 155,000. 
^ ^ ^ 
Cemetery Planting and the Florists. 
The rules and regulations of the modern cemetery, 
covering the permissible plants in the decoration of 
graves and lots, when first promulgated, created more 
or less consternation in the florists’ establishments in 
close proximity to the cemeteries. The lawn plan with 
level graves promised to seriously restrict the use of 
bedding plants and the class of shrubs and planting 
material so lavishly and irresponsibly used under the 
old regime ; and while the authorities of the lawn plan 
cemeteries practically control such details nowadays, 
plants and shrubs used in the new order of things for 
memorial or decorative purposes are of so much better 
quality and kind that the trade has really been bene- 
fited rather than otherwise, and a prosperous spring 
and summer business is the rule. It may always be 
taken for granted that improvement carries with it 
compensating opportunities, besides imparting its bene- 
ficial influences to all allied interests, and the lawn plan 
of cemetery design and maintenance has further dem- 
onstrated the truth of this formula. 
